Round 10 Blog

Proceedings kick off at the ‘G where the Blues will be keen to atone for a lost opportunity last Friday night. Dean Bailey’s Demons are copping criticism, but a win would see them just outside the eight.

North host the Swans, both coming off losses. North always seem to need a win at present, whilst the Swans’ finals prospects demand they win this one.

Some of the Saints’ stars showed signs of life last week, but they’d need to beat Freo over there before anyone got too excited about a comeback.

The Suns launch their refurbished ground, and Gazza plays his old team. The Cats are going in with 2nd gamer Vardy as their first ruck. Does Corey Enright’s soreness relate to his fist?

Richmond and Port head to Darwin, where the Tiges will look to stay on a roll, while the Power will just be hoping not to unravel any further.

If Adelaide are still harbouring finals hopes they need to beat the visiting Lions. With big Johnny Brown back, hope will spring eternal for Brisbane.

Most eyes will be turned to Sunday at the ‘G, where TRP take on the vastly improved West Coast. Will the Eagles’ form travel with them to Melbourne? Will the Magpies continue to flirt with theirs?

Twilight at Docklands sees the Doggies trying to pick up the pieces from last week’s debacle in the West. The Hawks looked ominous in dealing with Sydney, but keeping it going has been an issue for them of late.

Related

Comments

A comment on the Paul Roos matter. What he did as a junior coach was totally wrong. It was bad enough that he entered the field of play. But then by addressing opposition players, it had the potential to escalate the incident even further. He has said that their team didn’t have a trainer. If that is the case in our junior league, then the club dicusses this prior to the game with the other team’s trainer to attend to all injured players. It does not allow for another official to enter the arena.

Coaches saying anything at all to an opposition player just shouldn’t happen. We saw last year when Mick Malthouse engaged with Stephen Milne how pathetic it is. In junior football it is totally inappropriate. Last weekend at a school senior football match I saw one of “our” coaches throwing remarks at one of the opposition’s best players. It did nothing but demean the coach (and the player’s performance improved significantly after the words). This coach too was an ex AFL player who should know better.

A few comments/questions re. footy and footy news this week:
– Collingwood is considering sending some players to Arizona mid year – their first road trip for the season?
– Paul Roos’ entering the arena at a junior game has at least highlighted the unnecessary aggression displayed in sport played at this level.
– Is Chris Judd EVER pinged for holding the ball?

Enright must have a badly dislocated shoulder. The physics relating to the strength of his leap (with eyes only for the ball) as an opposite reaction to the fierceness of the Judd hold on his other arm must have caused the dislocation. I can think of no other reason.

We should all get eight this week or so you’d think:
Carlton to walk over Melbourne on Friday night
even if Chris Judd is slightly lame; Sydney to touch
up North at Etihad; Fremantle hosting the Saints,
is not just Sandilands. Or is that not true? The Cats
will eat the Suns; Richmond will flatten a dead flat Port

as if they are making pasta; Adelaide, seething with anger,
will choke Brisbane at AAMI Stadium; Collingwood will tease
the Eagles at the MCG and then swoop in for the kill and
the Hawks, feeling good, will roll the Dogs, feeling bad.
So what can go wrong? What can go right? Adelaide haven’t
played well with Tippett and Walker in the same team;

Port are more familiar with Darwin than Richmond but there’s
still no Chad Cornes. Has St Kilda woken up? Goddard and
Riewoldt hit their straps for the first time last week; the Suns
play their first game at their new Gold Coast stadium.
And big men are out. Sandilands for four weeks, Brad Ottens
out for the Cats, Shane Mumford out for Sydney.

Well the round does look pretty tippable. With the season not half way there, there are only 9 teams in it. The real question is who of them is not going to make the 8. I say Sydney, but not with confidence. that aside I think this will be the closest run final series since there has been an 8. Collingwood are the great hoax, they are not particularly better than any other team in the 8 and the $5 on offer for the Eagles is the best bet available in football in living memory (much as I hate to say anything good about the Weevils).

Speaking of bets on Collingwood games Neil, what about the bloke who had a million bucks on them to win last week?! Gees, he must’ve been sweating bullets for a while there!

Certainly seems to be a fairly straight forward round. Will get along to Footy Park Sunday to see just how much better Brisbane is with Brown up front, and how Adelaide will respond after last weeks game.

All eyes will be on Walker, I don’t recall such hype and media coverage around one player since the days of Modra!

I’d like to report that at 12 minutes and 23 seconds** into the 3rd quarter of the Melbourne v Carlton match, Chris Judd was penalised for holding the ball.
** That’s actual playing time as per the countdown clock, not elapsed time.

Facebook and Twitter

Want to know when new stories are posted?

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. Note: this is not our eNewsletter sign up. Use the form on the other side to subscribe to our email eNewsletter as well!